After a couple of false starts (one postponement and one forfeiture), Kenilworth E's season finally got underway on 30th September with a match against Stratford C.
The team line-up was Dan, making his competitive debut in England, Gregory, Roy and Steph.
Gregory was the first to finish. He opened with a London, and soon had a knight, a rook, and a bishop bearing down on the c7 square. His opponent left his queen en pris as he castled queenside, but Gregory didn't waste any time in capturing it. Instead he went in for the kill, with his other knight and queen joining the attack, and checkmate following in only 19 moves. Gregory remains unbeaten whilst playing for Kenilworth.
On board 4, Steph was playing white. Her opponent blundered a bishop on move 5. A menacing attack followed, with queen and knight combining to threaten a fork of rook and king. In attempting to avoid the fork, Black allowed Steph to capture the rook with her queen. A few moves later, Black blundered his second rook. He decided to play on, but Steph easily completed a checkmate in 24 moves.
After his match, Roy, playing black, said that he had messed up the opening, but he got back into the game, and was a knight up in exchange for two pawns. As the pieces were swapped off, the endgame came down to White having a and b pawns versus Roy's knight and a b pawn. There was no way through for either player to promote their pawns, so a draw was agreed.
Dan, playing black on board one, was last to finish. For most of the game, he had a bishop stuck on g7 behind his pawn on f6, and after the heavy pieces had been exchanged, he was left with the bishop against White's knight. Dan had a 3-2 pawn majority on the kingside, and White had a 2-1 majority on the other side. Once his bishop was activated, it landed on a central square, paralysing the knight. With less than a minute on the clock, Dan was able to advance his kingside pawns while his opponent's king was stuck defending the queenside. His opponent resigned, and a 3.5 - 0.5 victory was completed.
Including the forfeited game, it is two wins in two, and as it stands we are top of Division 3.
Well played everyone.
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